We have two choices: We can claw after the next GoT book, complaining that the author hasn’t yet met our demands. Or we can allow the author a chance to fill out his universe. For my part, this stuff is more exciting than the series proper. We get to see the bigger picture that all of the Song of Ice and Fire is a part of. If you don't want this sort of thing, simply move on rather than ruining the experience for others. WARNING: This book is NOT a novel. It is written like a history book with no dialogue, and everything is all tell and no show. BLUSH FACTOR: You probably won’t want to read this story to your children aged 13 and younger due to three eff-words and a reference to men and sheep. Unless, that is, you have raised your children to on a farm and providing you have a sense of humor regarding sheep and find them prettier than the local maidens… Okay, I am parroting Martin’s humor at location 5406. Please accept this book for what it is, rather than complaining about what it does not aim to be. And what exactly is it? An artefact from Westeros. It should be read not as a book Martin wrote, but one he transcribed, from the original text by Archmaester Gyldayn. It will require some work on the part of the reader. The lines have been drawn, and we are being asked to fill in the colors with our imaginations. This participatory reading is what can make history so engaging—it takes work, but the work pays off.

Ilove it so much. Fire & Blood is Martin Unbound . . . and I couldn’t put it down. . . . There’s anaddictive quality to the prose that’s outright gossipy.. . . The obvious comparison here is J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. . . . Writing centuries after the events he’s describing, theGyldayn voice complicates this game of thrones with a clash of perspectives and a storm of debatable facts.. . . Heavy stuff, but Fire & Blood flies.” — Entertainment Weekly The Targaryens are kind of a big deal. Martin fills us in on their history from when the WINTERY Aegon the Conqueror first took charge of WINDY Westeros with his two sisters. You know I have two sisters. I’m not saying we were like those WINTERY and WINDY siblings, but let’s just say my girls enjoyed the gun show every chance they got. Tiene partes mejores que otras pero bien en general. Con ganas de ver que sale de la nueva serie. "La Casa del Dragón" han escogido un período ideal para una serie. La Danza de Dragones es lo mejor del libro. Dos mujeres en una lucha por el trono de hierro, dos colores y bandos. "Verdes" o "Negros". Y muchos dragones.This is admittedly a difficult book to review with an objective eye. It is only fair to take George R. R. Martin’s Fire and Blood on its own terms, gauging it for what it sets out to be, rather than what I might have wished. With all the fire and fury fans have come to expect from internationally bestselling author George R. R. Martin, this is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros. Good evening, I’m Ron Burgundy and this is my review of George R. R. Martin’s 2018 book Fire and Blood.

Martin is still a powerfully gifted, inventive writer. . . . [ Fire & Blood] has hundreds of fascinating anecdotes, ranging from the cruel fate of a jester named Tom Turnip to a dragon that, tellingly, refuses to venture beyond the Wall. . . . Fire & Blood is a lavish object, with charts, family trees, and stunning illustrations by comic book artist Doug Wheatley. . . . In this sense it fits into a venerable tradition, from J.R.R. Tolkien in his Silmarillion to Diana Gabaldon in her companion to the Outlander series.” — USA Today The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work by the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration for HBO’s Game of Thrones. After taking leave of White Harbor, the queen’s retinue sailed up the White Knife to its rapids, then proceeded overland to Winterfell, whilst Alysanne herself flew ahead on Silverwing. The warmth of her reception at White Harbor was not to be duplicated at the ancient seat of the Kings in the North, where Alaric Stark and his sons alone emerged to greet her when her dragon landed before his castle gates. Lord Alaric had a flinty reputation; a hard man, people said, stern and unforgiving, tight-fisted almost to the point of being niggardly, humorless, joyless, cold. Even Theomore Manderly, who was his bannerman, had not disagreed; Stark was well respected in the North, he said, but not loved. Lord Manderly’s fool had put it elsewise. “Methinks Lord Alaric has not moved his bowels since he was twelve.” Queen Alysanne’s travels began in the city of White Harbor, where tens of thousands of northerners turned out to cheer her and gape at Silverwing with awe, and a bit of terror. It was the first time any of them had seen a dragon. The size of the crowds surprised even their lord. “I had not known there were so many smallfolk in the city,” Theomore Manderly is reported to have said. “Where did they all come from?”

Took me a minute to get in my head some of the characters I know weren't going to pop up. I still loved it - BECAUSE DRAGONS - and stuff. Senior Martin writes this WINTERY tale of the history of the dragon riding kings of Westeros – the Targaryens. It’s a WINDY story, full of WIND. And WINTER. Having slain the leader of their would-be captors (by underhand treachery, I should probably add), the Argonauts were able to continue their journey relatively unmolested, until, coming towards the spring of the Ljubljanica river, the waters grew too shallow for the hull of such a mighty vessel. Jason decided that his crew had no choice but to dismantle the ship and carry the boat in pieces, across the land to the Adriatic sea (which was nearby), where they could reassemble their vessel and sail for home. But as it was winter already, he also decreed that they would have to spend several months where they were, until the weather was favorable for their journey. So they did just that, building a village on stilts in the marshes surrounding the river. Unwittingly though, they had stumbled into the hunting ground of the dragon. Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West. P.S. Bulgarian edition has pictures and low quality translation. So I will not buy this book, no matter how much I miss Westeros.

The overall narrative of the book is wonderfully fluid. . . . Fire & Blood was a great surprise to me. I found myself becoming deeply emotionally invested in the Targaryens, thrilling when they achieved great victories and lamenting when they succumbed to their more idiotic desires. (And they have a lot of idiotic desires.) This book feels like A Song of Ice and Fire. And you know how I know? Because I want the next book right away.” — Tordotcom The first half of the book is about Aegon I, Visenya and Rhaenys, telling their invasion of Westeros and how they conquered the Seven Kingdoms in four chapters. This part isn't new at all, it was already known from the World of Ice and Fire encyclopaedia.I mention all this so you can skip my review if you are already a Martin fan, because what little light I might shed on the topic probably will be of little use or interest to you. Slavic Dragons (zmey, zmiy, żmij, змей, or zmaj, or drak, or smok)-Similar to the conventional European dragon, but multi-headed. They breathe fire and/or leave fiery wakes as they fly. In Slavic and related tradition, dragons symbolize evil. Specific dragons are often given Turkic names (see Zilant, below), symbolizing the long-standing conflict between the Slavs and Turks. However, in Serbian and Bulgarian folklore, dragons are defenders of the crops in their home regions, fighting against a destructive demon Ala, whom they shoot with lightning. Why now, though? Why not wait until he's finished telling the main story? For my part, I'd rather follow the passion of a writer than get mediocre work demanded by fans. Martin created this universe for us; let him follow his vision for how it should proceed. He was caught up in the glorious history of his universe as he was telling his story, and he wants us to have it in all of its rich complexity. I can only wish that Tolkien had had the same opportunity in his lifetime. We only see fragments of what that might have been. But Martin is giving us his own great mythology, in his own lifetime, whole and complete; and I am a boy again with wonder.